ISLAMABAD June 8: The National Security Council, which met here on Wednesday with President General Pervez Musahrraf in the chair, took exception to the continued absence from its meetings of its members belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and considered legal recourse against them.

At a meeting of its supreme council on Tuesday, the MMA had reaffirmed its earlier decision of not allowing Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rahman and NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani to attend the NSC meeting.

The council, however, kept the option open for reversing the decision in its next meeting fixed for June 23.

According to an inside source, the president was annoyed over the absence of the two MMA representatives from NSC meetings.

He was advised to consider the option of de-notifying the leader of the opposition on the grounds that he did not enjoy majority support of the National Assembly’s opposition members and so had lost the right of sitting on the opposition leader’s seat.

Similarly, a proposal came that a constitutional reference be filed in the Supreme Court against NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani for violating a constitutional provision that binds him to attend NSC meetings since it was part of the constitution.